The Wind in Her Hair

Masih Alinejad is the voice of millions of Iranian women who are fighting for their rights as citizens. Now the Brooklyn-based activist and journalist has published her memoir, The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran, which looks at Alinejad’s life and two powerful social media campaigns against Iran’s compulsory dress code for women. The My Stealthy Freedom campaign asked women to take photographs of themselves not wearing the Islamic headscarf, while the White Wednesdays campaign encourages women to wear a white scarf, and to protest against forced hijab by hanging the scarf on a piece of stick and waving it in front of them. 

In 2016, Journalism is not a Crime and IranWire produced a series of 12 videos about Alinejad’s life and the My Stealthy Freedom campaign. The videos, by Ala Mohseni, are an unprecedented look at Alinejad’s life and activism. She reminisces about her life as a journalist in Iran fighting corruption in the parliament and we see her life as an exiled journalist in the US as she challenges hardline clerics in phone interviews and then posts parts of them on social media — many of these posts went viral. The videos include one emotional episode when Alinejad shows us the footage of the last time she visited her village to see her parents — her mother, whom Alinejad calls “a true feminist” and her father, a traditional radical Muslim who, while being a loving father, has distanced himself from Alinejad’s activism and has stopped talking to her. 

Alinejad’s efforts are part of a fine tradition of creative protest in Iran, one that continues to be necessary given the Islamic Republic regime’s sustained attacked on freedoms and its refusal to listen to the voices of its people. 

 

View all 12 of the My Stealthy Freedom videos: 

My Stealthy Freedom Documentary, Part 1: A Page is Born

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 2: My Stealthy Freedom Takes Flight

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 3: Isfahan Acid Attacks

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 4: The Threats Begin

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 5: My Password, Pouyan

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 6: The Threats Intensify

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 7: The Roots

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 8: Roots 2

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 9: The Ugly Duckling

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 10: She Is Not Alone

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 11: The Companion

 

My Stealthy Freedom, Part 12: Why Stealthy Freedom?